The Good Book_ A Secular Bible - A. C. Grayling [120]
20. He had made her his wife in the following way. It was not the Persians’ custom, before this time, to marry their sisters, but Cambyses fell in love with her,
21. So he called together the royal judges, and put it to them, ‘Whether there was any law which permitted a brother to marry his sister?’
22. When Cambyses put his question to the judges, they gave him an answer which was at once true and safe:
23. They did not find any law, they said, allowing a brother to take his sister to wife, but they found a law that the Persian king might do whatever he pleased.
24. And so they neither betrayed the law through fear of Cambyses, nor ruined themselves by maintaining it; but brought a different law to the king’s help, which allowed him to have his wish.
25. Cambyses, therefore, married the object of his desire, and soon afterwards took another sister to wife.
26. It was the younger of these who went with him into Egypt, and there suffered death at his hands.
27. Concerning the manner of her death, it is said that Cambyses had put a young dog to fight the cub of a lioness, his wife looking on.
28. Now the dog was getting the worse, when a pup of the same litter broke his chain, and came to his brother’s aid; then the two dogs together conquered the lion.
29. This greatly pleased Cambyses, but his sister shed tears. Cambyses asked why she wept,
30. Whereon she told him that seeing the young dog come to his brother’s aid made her think of Smerdis, whom there was none to help. For this speech Cambyses put her to death.
Chapter 25
1. Cambyses behaved with madness towards others besides his kindred, including Prexaspes, the man whom he esteemed beyond all the rest of his people,
2. Who carried his messages, and whose son held the office of Cambyses’ cupbearer – a matter of no small account among Persians.
3. Cambyses asked him: ‘What, Prexaspes, do the Persians say of me?’ Prexaspes answered, ‘O! sire, they praise you greatly in all things but one: they say you are too much given to wine.’
4. Whereupon Cambyses, full of rage, answered, ‘What? they say that I drink too much, and so have gone out of my mind! Then their former speeches about me were untrue.’
5. For once, when the Persians were sitting with him, and Croesus was by, he had asked them what sort of man they thought him compared to his father Cyrus.
6. They had answered that he surpassed his father, for he was lord of all that his father ever ruled, and further had made himself master of Egypt, and the sea.
7. Then Croesus, who disliked the comparison, said to Cambyses: ‘In my judgement, son of Cyrus, you are not equal to your father, for you have not yet left behind you such a son as he had.’
8. Cambyses was delighted when he heard this reply, and praised the judgement of Croesus.
9. Recollecting these answers, Cambyses spoke fiercely to Prexaspes, saying,
10. ‘Judge now for yourself, Prexaspes, whether the Persians tell the truth, or whether it is not they who are mad for speaking as they do.
11. ‘Look there at your son standing in the vestibule; if I shoot and hit him in the heart, it will be plain the Persians have no grounds for what they say:
12. ‘If I miss him, then I allow that the Persians are right, and that I am out of my mind.’
13. So speaking he drew his bow to the full, and struck the boy, who straightway fell down dead.
14. Cambyses ordered the body to be opened, and the wound examined; and when the arrow was found to have entered the heart, the king was overjoyed, and said to the father with a laugh,
15. ‘Now you see plainly, Prexaspes, that it is not I who am mad, but the Persians. I pray you tell me, did you ever see anyone send an arrow with better aim?’
16. Prexaspes, seeing that the king was not in his right mind, and fearing for himself, hid his grief for his son and replied,
17. ‘O! my lord, I do not think that anyone in all history could shoot so dexterously.’
18. For